This invention relates to an electronic still camera, and more particularly, to an electronic still camera which records a still picture on a card type recording medium.
Recently, electronic still cameras which use a solid state imaging device such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a rotatable magnetic recording medium such as a floppy disk, have been proposed to replace a still camera using a photographic film.
According to electronic still camera of this type, an optical image of an object is imaged on a photoelectric-conversion CCD having a color separation filter array via a lens, an aperture and an optical shutter, and an image or picture signal from the CCD is separated into a luminance signal and color difference signals by a signal processing circuit. These signals are further subjected to a signal processing, such as FM modulation suitable for magnetic recording, and are then recorded onto a rotatable recording medium by a recording head.
A still picture thus recorded by an electronic still camera is reproduced by a reproducing device that is a separate unit from the camera. The reproducing device reads out a picture signal from the magnetic recording medium to a signal processing circuit where the signal is converted into a television video signal. The video signal is supplied to a TV monitor to reproduce a still picture.
This prior art electronic still camera has the following problems.
To drive the rotatable magnetic recording medium, the electronic still camera needs a drive means, such as a motor, built therein. As cameras are often used under heavy and severe environments involving hard vibration and/or very high or low temperature, it is technically difficult to stably drive the magnetic recording medium. Moreover, the provision of the motor naturally makes a small size version of the camera difficult. This would result in a lower operability of the camera. In addition, the FM recording of an image on the recording medium makes it difficult to provide a high-quality image. Dubbing of an image would significantly reduce the quality of the image.